Enabling policies are essential for providing the conditions to encourage inclusive and sustainable rural transformation in developing countries. With this in mind, in 2016, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) conducted a review of their country-level policy engagement (CLPE) across five regions in which they operate.  

The review found improvements, as well as wide variation in the extent to which policy engagement is pursued by its different country programmes. Therefore, in an effort to establish a consistent and effective approach to policy engagement across IFAD, this guide book was developed. It is designed to help country and project teams better understand IFAD’s approach, as well as structure and manage ther policy engagement activities.

This guide book includes a theoretical framework for IFAD’s approach to policy engagement, a categorisation and explanation of IFAD’s policy-related activities, suggested processes for preparing a policy engagement strategy, support on monitoring and evaluation of CLPE activities, and an array of workshop tools and sources on the topic of policy engagement.